The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said President Bola Tinubu has no moral or political latitude to remain in office, having failed to secure Nigerians.
Atiku in a statement on Thursday by his media office, also called for special courts to speed up the trial of terrorists and bandits in the country.
The ADC candidate who was reacting to the abduction of over 82 schoolchildren by terrorists in Oyo and Borno States, said the Federal Government should expedite action to ensure their safe release.
“President Tinubu has no moral or political latitude to stay in Aso Villa a day longer if tens of hundreds of abducted citizens languish in captivity across the country,” Atiku stated.
He expressed embarrassment at the frequency with which terrorists were threatening citizens with impunity without an appropriate response by the government.
According to him, the primary responsibility of any government is the security and welfare for the governed, and called on Tinubu to step down from office in the interest of Nigerians.
“What type of government will allow non-state actors to turn its national territory into killing fields and a haven for kidnapping and extortion?” Atiku wondered.
He said security should not be treated as a political slogan and that the citizens could only be impressed by prompt and effective response to security challenges.
The former Vice President warned that when abductions are allowed to drag on, it creates incentives for future attacks on schools by criminal elements.
“Impunity makes the terrorists bolder and more determined to carry out future attacks.
“The citizens look up to the government for urgent and prompt interventions to banditry and terrorist attacks,” he said, adding that “the government must project confidence in the minds of the citizens that it is capable of protecting them at all times.”
Atiku stated that the delay in the nation’s criminal justice system in which terrorism trials drag on endlessly embolden terrorism.
He advocated for the death penalty to terrorism offences, arguing however that the death penalty itself could not be effective if the government lacks the political will to promptly sign the death warrants for convicted terrorists.
